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PortAventura: General Discussion

PortAventura 20th Anniversary - 2015

In 2015 PortAventura turns 20 and the Resort are not holding back on the celebrations, I thought I'd just put together a quick post to summarise whats been released so far:

What's new and happening?

New 5* Hotel Mansión de Lucy - Due to the popularity of the Lucy's Mansion Suites at Hotel Gold River, PortAventura have separated the Lucy's Mansion building from the rest of the hotel and are currently building 3 new large blocks to create Hotel Mansión de Lucy. PortAventura's 5th Resort Hotel will have it's own private pool and hot tub, 2 exclusive restaurants, bar and VIP amenities.

Cirque Du Soleil - Amaluna - After the success of 'Kooza' this year, In 2015 PortAventura and Cirque Du Soleil will present Amaluna, at the groups new arena at PortAventura, next to Hotel Gold River.

Re-designed FiestAventura - To celebrate PortAventura Park's 20th Anniversary, the famous evening show FiestAventura will be re-designed and updated to include new scenes and incorporate the latest technology.

20th Anniversary Show - A new show will debut at the Teatre Principal in Mediterrania to celebrate 20 years of PortAventura Park.

New Shows and Parade - Next year new shows are planned to fill PortAventura Park including updated versions of the most popular productions.

Improvements to Polynesia - PortAventura have announced that Polynesia will be seeing improvements and enhancements for the 2015 season, although specific details haven't been released.

Hotel El Paso Refurbishment - In early 2015 Hotel El Paso will finish its refurbishment phase meaning all original Resort hotels have been renovated ready for the 20th Anniversary.

Ferrari Land and 5* Hotel Ferrari - 2016 - PortAventura's 3rd Park Ferrari Land, and 6th Resort Hotel are now being advertised on the latest Resort maps and brochures in preparation for their opening in early 2016.

More news and events are to be released over the coming months regarding PortAventura's 20th Anniversary, but it's already looking like the Resort is set for another successful year in 2015.
 
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Glad Cirque Du Soleil is back. I can see them building a permanent venue at PortAventura in a few years time!

...and FINALLY FiestAventura is getting updated! Should have been done ages ago but at least they are doing something to it for next year.

Looks like good work on entertainments at PA yet again.
 
siralgenon said:
but it's already looking like the Resort is set for another successful year in 2015.
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"another"

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Apologies - this ended up as something of a trip report but think it is better suited in this topic.

I was at PA a couple of weeks ago (on Sat 22nd Nov) whilst in Barcelona for a few days. It was the first day of the Christmas season and was busier than I was expecting. I came out with a really mixed opinion of the park, moreso than previous times I've visited.

To begin - we found Christmas at the park a pretty bizarre experience. Even at the end of November it was about 18 degrees and a bit overcast (some light drizzle), which made the obligatory Santas, giant baubles and fake Christmas trees spread (somewhat thinly) through the park feel entirely out of place. There appeared to be plenty of extra shows on (we didn't deliberately see any but walked past one in Mexico about an elf who was upset because he couldn't wrap a present but then a girl elf showed him how whilst dancing and then he was really happy - it looked awful but kids were enjoying it which I guess is the point) as well as an ice rink in Mexico and snow tubing right in the middle of the main China plaza which wasn't great for guest throughflow but it's nice to see these provided as additional free activities in contrast to what we expect here.

However - the main reason we were there - all coasters on park were open which was fantastic for November. On my last visit (2012) Furius Baco was closed, and having thought on visits in 2008 and 2010 that it was great, I was eager to re-ride it after so much negativity regarding roughness.

There are two main problems with PortAventura: awful operations and queuejumping. To tackle the latter - and these are points that have been made on this forum by many so apologies for the repetition but nothing has changed - the park haven't put anything in place to deter this (low fences easy to get through) and the offenders are from all generations, rather than just pesky young teenagers, so I end up concluding this is more cultural than the same activity in the UK or The Netherlands where I am now. The queues are all awful cattlepens without exception - it's hard to pick a worst offender because they are all so bad. I also find it more difficult to intervene because alas my Spanish is rudimentary.

Secondly, the operations on this Saturday were abysmal on most of the big coasters. Shambhala, Dragon Khan and Stampida were all on one train (Stampida had one on each track). Despite ever-increasing queue sizes there was no move to add additional trains. This was impossible on Stampida as the spares had been taken apart but at least one extra train on Shambles and DK looked intact. Even if not, loading took longer than I've ever seen it in the park, further compounding throughput - I saw two dispatchers (Sham and DK) using their phones and thus not noticing the thumbs up from the crew. In a bizarre turn of events, Furius Baco was on two trains and thus after the morning rush was under a 30-minute queue for the rest of the day. The frustration of poor operations and a generally awful queuing experience complete with regular queuejumping pushed us to buy Fasttrack, something we hadn't planned but after an hour in Shambles' cattlepen, limited time on park and a desire to enjoy as much as we could given the relative journey to get there it seemed the best option. We opted to pay €5 extra to get front row on Shambles, DK and FB.

A third problem is the food. It's awful. A complete lack of choice and quality anywhere, especially bad for a resort of its size. I'm vegetarian and was beginning to think there'd be nothing at all until we ended all the way back at the entrance in the lame Mediterranean sit-down restaurant, where I had some pasta with the saltiest pesto of all time. My gf's bolognese was woeful. Sorry to compare to Europa but there's a world of difference between the two both in choice but also quality (we weirdly had the same meals at EP a couple of years ago). AT is also significantly better in those two regards, even if I feel AT this year (particularly Woodcutters) has gone somewhat downhill. PA's was embarrassing. We shared a pizza slice later in the day and it looked like they set it on fire instead of Stampida - we sent it back and came back severely undercooked instead.

Water rides: only the rapids and Angkor Wat were open. Despite how nice it looked from Shambhala's lift, we didn't go near Angkor Wat because a) we have no desire to go on a splash battle anywhere, especially in light drizzle and clouds, despite the temperature; and b) it seemed pointless to walk to it to look without riding when it's down a path in its own area. The rapids are quite entertaining if short - not too wet until you get completely screwed over by the jets at the end. No idea why these are on at the end of November.

Coasterwise: Shambhala remains absolutely incredible and my favourite coaster in Europe. First ride of the day was in the middle, but the front row experience was absolutely astonishing - colossal amounts of airtime and just sheer joy to ride. It's a real shame that parks in the UK favour inversions over airtime. Dragon Khan is good but is pretty rough these days - the zero-g remains the highlight for me. Stampida is still spine-shatteringly rough and - if it weren't for the fact that it would also remove the superior and actually great fun Tomahawk - I'd advocate dowsing the whole thing in petrol and burning it down. El Diablo is inexplicable and is fun because it's so weird. Being rational, it's a waste of space (but I'm glad it's there).

We saved Furius Baco until the end of the day when we were on our way out. We were going to do it twice with the remaining fasttracks (front row and normal) but that didn't work out. As I said - my memories of it from a few years ago were amazing and it was firmly in my top ten. I've campaigned on here and formerly on TTF that it was actually a good coaster, even in the back rows. Now I'm not sure whether it's really changed in 4 years or whether I had somehow convinced myself I enjoyed it by erasing the real experiences from memory. It's fast, it's got a novel and inexplicable pre-show, it's got awful Intamin restraints and IT'S JUST SO ROUGH. We were in the front row and it was shaking as much as Stampida, only I was more concerned it would fall apart than I was about the woodie. That level of shaking, with that ludicrous speed and those terrible restraints makes for a disastrous combination. I was hoping it would be over by the time we started the first turn. After getting off we didn't actually want to ride any other coasters, especially FB, so gave our remaining fasttracks to the nicest-looking people we could see and went to sit down and assess our lives (whilst eating an uncooked pizza slice). I can't work out quite what's wrong or how it could be solved - maybe add normal trains and accept the halving of capacity? Redesign the station and trains so that they sit astride the track like B&Ms? Blow it up and pretend it never existed?
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PortAventura is in many places a beautiful park with great theming. It has a world-class coaster (Shambles); some other good coasters (DK, Tomahawk and actually that's it); a great drop tower (didn't ride due to queues this time); and some good water rides. I do enjoy El Diablo too even if it's more of a novelty than anything else. It looks pretty great for kids (even though Sesame town was pretty busy) and there are an abundance of flat rides. There look to be plenty of shows adjusted for the seasons. Sorry to say that the epic Templo del Fuego was closed.

Unfortunately, it has two abysmal coasters (FB and Stampida), terrible operations (though I accept it's the off-season), awful queueing experiences (cattlepens and queue-jumping) and disastrous food quality and choice.

Despite that, we did have a pretty great day - though we felt we had to pay significantly more to enjoy it by purchasing fasttracks (and alas made other people's queues longer by doing so). We wanted to do a city break in late November with a day in a theme park if possible, so it was great for that and it's almost worth it for Shambhala alone. It could be a really great park if some of the (easily-solvable) issues were tackled. As it is now though, we're not in any hurry to return.
 
Great news about Cirque de Soleil and general entertainment development. Absolutely LOVE Fiestaventura so glad to see it's being re-done.

But MORE resort accommodation? What? Wait... WHY?

The hotels spend half their time shut (even in open season) and they're too big for their own good due to ridiculous over ambition when PortAventura was developed...

Really don't get it.

The rest all seems fine, though.

Regarding the above post - I agree that operations at PortAventura are largely poor compared to most other major European resorts - many people say the only way to actually enjoy it when it's medium or busy is with the hotel fastrack, which is massively over sold.
 
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Really?
disastrous food quality and choice.
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I still cannot believe you feel the food choice is poor! I think it's good, borderline outstanding. You can get: Burritos, Mexican Food, Burgers, Ribs, American-styled food, Pizzas, Pastas, Wraps, Salads, Ice Cream, Frozen Yoghurt, Chinese Noodles, Chinese Buffet, Polynesian foods, and all the choice at the Hotels on top too, but the food in Salou is also very good too (if you pick the right places).

I really think the food quality exceeds that of many UK parks, espesially Thorpe Park in particular. I loved the food personally in the summer.

Regards to the Hotel, I think it is a bad move. They really do not need anymore Hotels, and with the Ferrai Land hotel on top, there isn't much demand or need for it.

The Entertainment & new shows is a welcome decision, as well as the new FiestAventura (long awaited). I still feel Ferrai Land is a bad choice, just because it doesn't fit well with the Theme Park, and is quite a direct theme (everything Ferrai) but will be good either way to see some development.

2015 seems a good year for refreshing and revamping shows and entertainment ready for the amount of people arriving in 2016 for Ferrai Land. I personally don't feel Polynesia is the area needing touch-ups, but China almost certainly is (around Dragon Khan).
 
I found the food to be average at best at PA, they did do some lovely cold juices though.
 
I don't particularly have a problem with the food at PA, although can't remember it being particularly special either. Quite a lot of outlets were shut when I have been.

It's definitely one of the more expensive for food and beverage though - after Disneyland Paris I felt it was the next most expensive in Europe.
 
I like the food at PA. Although it's nothing that special. I've never had a meal there that makes me think 'wow I have to come back for the food'.

The biggest drag at PA is customer service for me. Have come across a few very friendly people there although generally half the staff look like their job is forced upon them and make very little effort to please guests (or themselves by the looks of it).
 
The worst thing about PortAventura is the mass of British tourists on a cheap package holiday.

Oh, and the fact that after Shambhala and Khan, I couldn't really give much for the rest of the rides.

Some great shows, mind - when they're on!

:)
 
The food at PA isn't awful but isn't spectacular either. It's decent enough. Very overpriced though.

It isn't as good as Merlin at their best.
 
Rupert said:
We saved Furius Baco until the end of the day when we were on our way out. We were going to do it twice with the remaining fasttracks (front row and normal) but that didn't work out. As I said - my memories of it from a few years ago were amazing and it was firmly in my top ten. I've campaigned on here and formerly on TTF that it was actually a good coaster, even in the back rows. Now I'm not sure whether it's really changed in 4 years or whether I had somehow convinced myself I enjoyed it by erasing the real experiences from memory. It's fast, it's got a novel and inexplicable pre-show, it's got awful Intamin restraints and IT'S JUST SO ROUGH. We were in the front row and it was shaking as much as Stampida, only I was more concerned it would fall apart than I was about the woodie. That level of shaking, with that ludicrous speed and those terrible restraints makes for a disastrous combination. I was hoping it would be over by the time we started the first turn. After getting off we didn't actually want to ride any other coasters, especially FB, so gave our remaining fasttracks to the nicest-looking people we could see and went to sit down and assess our lives (whilst eating an uncooked pizza slice). I can't work out quite what's wrong or how it could be solved - maybe add normal trains and accept the halving of capacity? Redesign the station and trains so that they sit astride the track like B&Ms? Blow it up and pretend it never existed?
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Oh dear. I too defended Baco for not being that rough when I rode it in 2008. I guess it has genuinely got so much worse. I'd say I'm reluctant to go back now... until I remember Shambhala and all the great rides that were closed last time ;)
 
Cirque Du Soleil is here to stay.

Today PortAventura announced a five year partnership with Cirque Du Soleil, bringing the world famous cirque troupe permanently to the Resort. The partnership means PortAventura is the only Resort worldwide behind Walt Disney World to offer a permanent home to the group. It is unknown whether a Amaluna will remain at PortAventura until 2020 or another Cirque show will replace it the following year.
 
TheMan said:
I thought that was confirmed ages ago? Or did the details need finalising?
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PortAventura have only announced the Partnership today. Earlier this week information was released about Cirque Du Soleil staying for next year, but nothing had been confirmed before then.
 
PA continues to be massively frustrating, then? It's always been a bit up and down, but operations seem to be more inconsistent and worse at their extreme than most parks.

I must defend the food there, though, which I always thought was the best in Europe outside of EP. Although even that statement only applies in the peak season, as literally everything closes when it's quiet or during the half baked Winter season.
 
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